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Root Question on Restoring Backups

M

maybeitsjustme

Lurker
Hello All,

I'm new to rooting in Android, and have a question, which I have not been able to find an explicit answer to.

I've used the unrevoked root tool, and an now fully rooted, s-off.

I've created backups of all of my apps, phone logs, texts, etc. I also created a nandroid backup, which I've tested and successfully restored from after wiping all phone data.

My question is--after I flash a custom ROM (planning on trying cyanogen), can I simply restore from my nandroid backup for the current ROM to get back to it? Or do I have to find the current ROM and run it first?

My thought is that simply restoring any given backup will allow me to boot into that ROM. Can someone confirm how this works? I just want to be 100% sure before I flash cyanogen.

Thanks for the help.
 
maybeitsjustme said:
Hello All,

I'm new to rooting in Android, and have a question, which I have not been able to find an explicit answer to.

I've used the unrevoked root tool, and an now fully rooted, s-off.

I've created backups of all of my apps, phone logs, texts, etc. I also created a nandroid backup, which I've tested and successfully restored from after wiping all phone data.

My question is--after I flash a custom ROM (planning on trying cyanogen), can I simply restore from my nandroid backup for the current ROM to get back to it? Or do I have to find the current ROM and run it first?

My thought is that simply restoring any given backup will allow me to boot into that ROM. Can someone confirm how this works? I just want to be 100% sure before I flash cyanogen.

Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

That is correct, you can restore at any point. A nandroid takes an image of the system as it is at that moment. When you tell it to restore it overwrites anything backed up into their respective partitions and restores your previous image.

That being said i would still wipe cache first at least. I wipe everything myself though its not required but also doesnt hurt.

The .zip file you flash does just that, flashes all the /system info onto your internal. You dont technically need that .zip any longer but it may be handy to keep if ya get in a boot issue, flashing it again over itself can fix some things without losingn your data.

A back up takes an image of everything on the internal (or everything you tell it to) and creates a file on your external. When you ask it to restore it grabs the image from the external ond overwrites whatever is on your internal with that image...clear? clear as mud?
 
Thanks for confirming. I actually really like the current setup I'm using, and wouldn't want to have too much difficulty getting back to it, if it turns out that I do not like Cynogen.

Thanks again! Here goes nothing..
 
Welcome to the forums. The short answer is that you are correct - if you want to get back to your previous ROM, just restore the backup. It will wipe out whatever is there with the entire contents of the backup. You do not need to have the flashable zip of the ROM, still. That being said, this is basically how it works:

Flashable zips are nothing more than:

1) A collection of files, and
2) A script that instructs recovery on what to do with those files.

The script in the zip will do a few different things for setup (format, etc.), but ultimately, it will take the collection of files and copy them to internal storage. This usually includes files for the /system partition and boot.img. These two things will give you a bootable system, which is what you ultimate get - a bootable ROM with nothing else installed, just like it was brand new. Once this is done, all necessary files are now on the system, and the flashable zip is no longer used or needed. Of course, it's a good idea to keep it around just in case you need it later, but it is not required. What you will notice from all of this, though, is that no data is touched. It's up to you to wipe that, first. If you didn't wipe it, it would still be there, and could very easily cause problems.

So, a nandroid backup, on the other hand, will take all files from all internal partitions, and package them up. It uses a different method than a flashable zip, though. It packages all internal partitions into separate img files. This includes boot.img and a system.img for a bootable system, along with a data.img, at minimum. When restored, your phone will be exactly the way it was when you made the backup. Again, the restore process is not the same as a flashable zip. It is a complete overwrite, wiping out all internal partitions and replacing them with the contents of the backup. You *can* customize it to restore only certain partitions, but that's not done often. In any case, a nandroid backup is complete, and does not rely on files from any other source. If you use clockwork, you will get everything you need in a backup. If you use Amon RA, you can customize the backup. Make sure you always backup at least system, boot, and data. If you use froyo apps2sd, backup .android_secure. If you use dt a2sd, backup sd-ext. Ignore that last one if you don't know what that is. You should also always backup wimax, or at least have one or two backups that include it.

EDIT: evomattnc beat me to it. I need to start writing shorter responses...
 
hahaha--i appreciate both responses. and this does make me feel a lot better about the process. I've just gotten my stock OS working the way i like it, and i wouldnt want to lose it, as i had mentioned.

One other thing that i saw..

Cyanogen tells you to flash the radio before flashing the ROM. Is this necessary if you are already on the Radio version that is required by the ROM?

It seems like this wouldn't be necessary..

Thanks again--you guys are quick.
 
maybeitsjustme said:
hahaha--i appreciate both responses. and this does make me feel a lot better about the process. I've just gotten my stock OS working the way i like it, and i wouldnt want to lose it, as i had mentioned.

One other thing that i saw..

Cyanogen tells you to flash the radio before flashing the ROM. Is this necessary if you are already on the Radio version that is required by the ROM?

It seems like this wouldn't be necessary..

Thanks again--you guys are quick.
Click to expand...

You never need to flash radios if you already have the latest version. Only flash them if you need to (i.e. have an older version, and know you need a new one). Remember this - if you don't have to flash a new radio version, even if you don't have the latest, don't flash a new radio version unless you need to. In any case, if you have the latest, don't flash it again (it won't harm it; it's just pointless).
 
sweet--again thanks for confirming. Here goes nothing. I am going to try flashing Cynogen first. Will see if any others look like they are worth a try after that. pretty pumped to see what is out there.
 
have fun and dont forget your nandroid back ups along the way. FYI cm7 is not in stable form yet though its gone through a few rcs and is pretty stable, last stable cm was 6.1.2. Anyhow, CM is also aosp so it wont be anything like your stock sense rom. Usually takes getting used to if you are new. You may wanna try some different sense roms to, or you may just love cm7 who knows. Either way the link in my sig will take you to a page with a bunch of great roms and kernels separated by aosp or sense.
 
haha--i was just about to respond. It looks like the RC has been made an official release. I'm liking the newer keyboard from gingerbread. i think it actually does make a difference.

I will try some of the other sense ROMs as well. I do like the sense interface, and widgets that come along with it.

Any front runners for sense that i should try?
 
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